Haggai 1:1-14; Hebrew 8:5; Habakkuk 2:2-3
I am yet to meet anyone in recent times who is born of God, who does not perceive the need for a deeper presence of God in our contemporary Church. Indeed that hunger and thirst has grown significantly after failure in our multiple attempts to “bring Heaven down to the Earth” through our own efforts and initiatives, missions and collaborations, projects and inventions, conferences and conventions, organisations and operations. All of these have driven many into physical exhaustion and emotional burnout.
Yet the hunger and thirst persists. It could then appear as if Heaven is hesitant about another outpouring of Grace upon our generation? No, not quite. To the contrary, God is more than eager to visit us again with His overwhelming Presence and Power. But God is seeking clean and ready vessels into and unto whom He can pour the Rain. God does not waste Divine resources. We are generally in a situation whereby God is waiting to see men and women who are not only available but are usable; while man cleverly claims that he is waiting on God for Revival.
The only way out of the current impasse is for us to repent and return unto the LORD, for Him to pour His rain of Revival. In what ways do we do this? In three main perspectives essentially, we need:
- To labour with Jesus Christ in building His Mystery Body; redirect our re-focus our energy into collaborating with the LORD as He builds His Church, the Church that prevails against the gates of Hades. We must shift our priorities away from building our own institutional empires and private kingdoms.
- To determinately build according to the Pattern. This implies to let go of our conventions and traditions and go back to the Bible. Yes, go back to the Bible to search the Scriptures again for our Divine Pattern and the pattern such as we were shown by those who Jesus worked in and through them, to build the Church in the New Testament.
- To be clear minded.
BUILD THE BODY
Haggai 1:1-14
1 In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying,
2 Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the Lord’s house should be built.
3 Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying,
4 Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your ceiled houses, and this house lie waste?
5 Now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways.
6 Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.
7 Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways.
8 Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord.
9 Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the Lord of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house.
10 Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit.
11 And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labour of the hands.
12 Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him, and the people did fear before the Lord.
13 Then spake Haggai the Lord’s messenger in the Lord’s message unto the people, saying, I am with you, saith the Lord.
14 And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people; and they came and did work in the house of the Lord of hosts, their God,
Lord, let us remain uncomfortable as David was, whenever and wherever You are dwelling in tents while our David’s are ‘flourishing’ in their palaces.
BUILD ACCORDING TO PATTERN
Hebrew 8:5
5 Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.
Exodus 40:32-35
32 When they went into the tent of the congregation, and when they came near unto the altar, they washed; as the Lord commanded Moses.
33 And he reared up the court round about the tabernacle and the altar, and set up the hanging of the court gate. So Moses finished the work.
34 Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
35 And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
2 Chronicles 5:13-14
13 It came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord; and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of musick, and praised the Lord, saying, For he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever: that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord;
14 So that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud: for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God.
Each time and every time the Church, the Body of Christ, the Temple of the Living God, the Household of Faith is built according to the Pattern, the Glory of God must attend it. The very day Moses completed the Tabernacle of the Congregation in the wilderness, “according to all that the LORD commanded Moses”, the Presence of the LORD came down upon the Tabernacle and His Glory filled the house of the Lord, so much that the priests the sons of Aaron could not go in to minister. Precisely the same was reported on the day Solomon dedicated the Temple of God which he built for the God of Israel, in Jerusalem. God relishes being the Worker of His own work.
BUILD A CLEAR VISION BASED ON THE GOSPEL
Habakkuk 2:2-3 KJV
2 And the Lord answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.
3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.
Finally, we need to make these principles clear to grasp, unto all those who also like us are burdened for the present predicament of the Church and are pleading with the LORD for Revival. The Lord is seeking for those who will leave theirs and build His own House, His own Church, and build it according to His own design and eternal Pattern according to the New Covenant as written in the New Testament. The time this is done, He that will come arrives. Even so, come LORD JESUS!
It is only when our housekeeping is in order that the Church can be effective again in fulfilling our Great Commission which is, to “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations…”. Amen.
Mystery of The Gospel 
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